Lounsbury Prep

Zayn nibbled on his bottom lip as he sat at his desk, squinting in irritation at the history notes in front of him. He cared about the War of the Roses about as much as he cared about the conversations his sister used to have at him about the perfect kind of mascara, and he couldn’t get himself to focus on the words in front of him. His mind kept wandering to Glee Club, wondering what the other boys would suggest to sing, whether he’d ever be able to make any kind of contribution. He’d tried earlier, before he started his homework, to find something in his iPod to match the requirements, but he came up short. His iPod contained very little genres other than his favored R&B, and there was definitely no soft rock like Louis seemed to favor.

When Liam entered the room twenty minutes later, relieving Zayn from his dreaded history duties, the two of them rushed to the auditorium. Even though very few days of school had passed, it seemed like both of them were already starting to get sick of the work. If Zayn had to start living night to night, living only for Glee Club, the school year was going to drag on forever.

Since last night, it seemed like even more leaves had fallen from the trees to Zayn. It made the landscape look much brighter and more beautiful, and he was incredibly happy that he’d chosen Lounsbury over another school he looked at that had a sad lacking of trees around the campus. How barren that place must have looked in comparison to his school.

Liam and Zayn, unlike the night before, were the first to show up at the auditorium. They settled down on the stage and waited for the other boys to arrive, sitting down next to each other, their knees about two inches from each other with their Indian-style seated positions.

“I have a question,” Zayn started conversationally. “If there are only five guys in the group, how do you guys perform? You don’t have enough to compete, do you?”

Liam shook his head. “No. The school isn’t even enrolled in any of the district competitions, but when we started the group, it wasn't about that. It was about a way to gather together and give ourselves some kind of distraction from how difficult this school is. I’m sure you’ve already noticed, but you look forward to these, don’t you? It’s way better than the piles of work they give us for sure.”

Zayn nodded in understanding. “So why don’t you guys just sit around and talk instead of performing?”

“Because we needed it to be a legitimate club to get the permit to use this beautiful bit of space,” the other boy laughed in response, gesturing around the room. “Plus, we all really love to sing, and we figured it was a no-brainer. And the dean lets us perform at the end-of-the-year assembly, so we’re really kind of preparing for that.”

“Oh, alright.” The darker boy felt his palms start to sweat a little when he thought of performing in front of the entire school, especially if they ended up throwing a solo on him like they’d suggested before. But it was too late to back out now, and he knew that if he walked away from the group, he was walking away from the brand-new friendships he’d created. And they seemed to be confident in his abilities, so maybe they heard something he couldn’t.

“Hello, friends!” Louis’ high-pitched voice called from the front door, the tone echoing through the space as he grinned. “Are Harry and Niall not here yet?”

“Nope,” Liam replied. “Maybe they’re calling their girlfriends or something?”

“They’ve got girlfriends?” Zayn burst out with a shocked tone. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so surprised, since they were both pretty good-looking, but he figured that they would have mentioned something about the girls if it were true.

“Yeah,” Louis replied, not seeming to think of Zayn’s word-vomit as strange. “You do, too, don’t you?”

Zayn’s face filled with a violent, completely obvious blush as he shook his head. “Uh, no, I haven’t got a girlfriend.”

“That’s so weird,” Liam laughed. “Louis and I talked about it and decided that there was no way you were single.”

Zayn could have puked. He didn’t want the truth to come out already. He didn’t want these seemingly-friendly guys to turn against him so soon. So he just shrugged and said, “I’m happy being single right now.

“Less distractions for you,” Louis replied, plopping down next to Zayn and nudging the other boy with his knee. “Which is good. Harry and Niall are preoccupied enough as it is.”

Zayn gave him a small smile, still feeling thoroughly uncomfortable with the subject. Just as he started to rack his brain for a new topic to discuss to get their minds off Zayn’s singleness, the front door opened, and both of the missing boys poured in.

“I swear,” Harry called immediately, as if reading the minds of the other boys, “I was talking to my mum. She was worried that I was already starting to fail my classes, so I had to assure her that I usually wait until the third week to start slacking.”

“If you say so,” Louis replied in a flat tone. “Are you finally ready to get this started then?”

“Yeah,” Niall agreed. He settled down with the rest of the boys while Harry disappeared backstage to find his wheeling whiteboard that Zayn had deemed The Sidekick.

“So,” Harry started once he uncapped the marker, the piece of blue plastic sticking out from between his lips, “what did we all come up with?”

Zayn tried to will himself to become invisible as the boys started calling out different suggestions. After a minute, Niall pulled out his list and started reading the options out loud as Harry struggled to scribble quickly enough to keep up.

“What about you?” Louis questioned, nudging Zayn. Zayn really wished the boy would stop doing that because it drove him crazy with options of how he could flirt back before remembering that Louis wasn’t trying to make a move. “What are your options?”

Zayn started to blush again before saying, “I kind of lost it, but I remember that one of the things on it was Apologize by One Republic. I figured that we could make it a little faster, thanks to the beat in the background, and it could work really well for us.”

“I love that suggestion,” Louis seconded. “I think we could do a lot with it.”

Harry nodded in agreement as he turned to The Sidekick and scribbled down the option. “Anyone else? Or should we start the vote?”

“I just decided that I didn’t like my number one choice, so I think we should vote,” Liam responded for the group.

Harry went down the list, and the boys raised their hands for their favorite options. And in the end, the top three unanimous choices were Apologize by One Republic, How to Save a Life by The Fray, and Breakeven by The Script. The boys were all content with the choices, and the meeting was soon adjourned.

“But before you go,” Harry piped up, “we’re not going to start rehearsals until next week. So tomorrow, we’re just going to come here, hang out, and do a little group bonding. Sound like a good idea?”

“Sounds good,” Niall confirmed.

Zayn felt a little uncomfortable, knowing that there would be no reason for the club to have group bonding if they didn’t have a new member in him, but he was thankful that they were going to do it. He thought getting to know the boys better would be a great idea, and he’d feel even more comfortable than he already did after they were done.

Harry soon dismissed everyone, and Liam and Zayn walked back to their dorm room, chatting about their assignments and complaining about having to go back to them. Niall and Louis were a little further behind, talking about something else entirely, and Zayn struggled not to eavesdrop.

After all, it was none of his business. None at all.